Workshop life in Lacremò, making handmade custom steel frames, details, small parts and a lot of elbow grease

Hello everybody,

here I am to add a new chapter to the workshop adventures in Lacremò.

At this point of the work, I have to braze the last small parts of the frame and then I have to clean and polish everything before going to the painter.

In this case, I will bring the frame to a small company that is going to make another kind of treatment instead of painting. The frame is going to be sandblasted, then nickel plated and at the end copper plated like the one I have shown you in this post: Copper plated steel, another way to say steel is real.

"his power is in his hands, not his head. Jack-of-all-trades. His hands! Like a painter, an artist. In his hands"

The Variable Man,
Philip K. Dick

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If you have lost the previous posts you should take a look here:

• Workshop life in Lacremò, making handmade custom steel frames, the beginning...
• Workshop life in Lacremò, making handmade custom steel frames, tacking and fillet brazing...

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SMALL PARTS

Thanks to the picture below I can show you better what I mean for small parts. I have added through silver brazing process 16 cable routing to tie 4 different cables. On top, it will go hydraulic brake cable and rear derailleur, on the down tube it is going to be tied front derailleur cable and telescopic seat post cable.

Going deeper, I have fillet brazed the caliper mount PM for 160 mm disc and I have to add a small bridge to connect seatstay with chainstay.

Really important for the rear triangle is the top bridge to add a small stiffner element on the frame.
Each element I am going to braze on the frame it has got a 3 mm vent hole that helps the brazing process and it helps to prevent oxidation effect in the inner part of the tubes.

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Hours and hours later polishing with emery cloth, with pain on the hands, but with a lot of satisfaction, I can say that the work on my little workshop can be considered closed for my 15th frame and I can bring it to another workshop to conclude the copper plating process.

This is my 15th frame.
Each time it seems better than the previous one. I am getting more experienced and my hands a getting better and better to follow my thoughts. My mind is getting stronger.
If I find a trouble I put focus on the situation, I analyze the problem and I find out a solution that it always arrives.

Thank you a lot for your attention and when I will write you again the frame it will have changed the colour and I hope the efforts to look for beauty on the steel and in the handmade will bring a little of happiness.

All the best,

G.